The stories they never told us about parrots

Now that I have this beautiful character in my house -- Pepper -- an African Grey -- who is  followed by my saint-like cat Sattva who has curbed his natural instinct to hunt birds, I am digging up parrot lore.

I found this out, and sad that our books which have so many European stories -- ya, I know more about Homer and the Sir Arthur's sword than my Indian stories. Given the intolerance nowadays I can understand the minute a story is included in text books there will be some hue and cry from some quarters. But in time, when I was a kid, that was not so. Yet, we were blocked by our imperial hangover and a syllabus that felt its shadow and that has today made us quite blind to the rest of our country. And we are the losers, for not knowing our stories. And now, the way we have become, it maybe it will be too late:(

Anyway, trawling the net, I dug these up:)

Any case, the first part of a parrot is you want to know whose vahana/vehicle it is?

Kama, who rides it.

And in whose hands is it more often found?
In the sweeter version of Shakti, where in southern temples she is worshipped as Meenakshi and Kamakshi. Here she is the devoted wife of the householder form of Lord Shiva.


Where are parrots famously found?

Arunaleshwar temple, where there is a statue on the temple facade.


Which saint is associated with the parrot?
Arunagirinathar, a Murugan devotee.
He lost his body through a trick by his rival: he had transmigrated into the body of a parrot to get a sight-saving flower for his king but when he returns find the rival has made the king burn the body. But the saint is happy to live on as the parrot and haunt the temple of his favorite deity. The story is depicted by what is called the killi gopuram (parrot gateway).

Which temples are they said to congregate in great numbers?

The Arunaleswara temple (part of the complex where Ramana Maharishi used to meditate) and which is situated to celebrate the lingam form of Lord Shiva is said  have hundreds of parrot visitors:)

Who is the Shukadev / Shukhamuni ..(The parrot sage) and the association of the parrot with a sage?

Son of Vyasa, so pure that when some nymphs see him they do not feel the need to cover themselves:)
He is said to have written the Bhagavad puranam.
There are several stories behind his name which means the parrot sage. One has that when Shiva was narrating the Bhavagatapuranam, it was overheard by a parrot nestling in the womb of a sage, and this parrot was born in human form as Sukhadev, son of Vyasa, who did penance of 100 years for such an offspring.

The other story has sage Vyasa, excited by an apsara who took the form of a parrot, discharged on a wood that was being offered at a homa pyre. The discharge creates this radiant son which a beaked nose, after his mother. He is such a pure soul that the when his name is called out, all nature would vibrate, because they saw themselves in him, as he did, in them.

Another story that made me tearful, for some reason, is where when Yudhistra is offering food to people on charity, he wants to keep tabs on how many he is feeding. Vyasa says after every 1000 people his bell would ring. But suddenly the bell starts ringing maddeningly, and that is so because the unkempt, naked Sukhdev is eating one grain. Since his soul is so pure and so cosmic, he is at once so many people, so every grain he eats rings for 1000 souls. How beautiful and what stories they told, those days, of what charismatic people--

So, one parrot has started me, on such a journey and I am planning to find out more about Sukhdev.. .

A similar sense u get when you read about Dattatreya too:)

In the end, and the beginning, yoga is a mind thing

Some quotes to carry forward the idea presented in the earlier blog: None who has not renounced the mental world, has any title to the name "Yogin": Bhagavad Gita Detach thyself from the thing tasted and from that which tastes its, mediate on the taste along: thus be ever all Atman: anon The mind being full, the whole universe is filled with the juice of nectar; the whole earth is covered with leather to him who has put his foot in the shoe. Yogavasishtha. And my favorite is this one: The interval between the mind's passing from one idea to another: all blank and free from any thinking whatever, may be described as the native condition )of Self_. Yoga vasishtha

How long can the mind be still?

When I started learning about yoga, I used to gobble up every bit of info on it -- yoga was an intoxication for me, and still, thankfully is though not with the fever pitch I used to feel, at the amount of knowledge I was stumbling upon.. My love for it has moved from the infatuation stage to a mature one..

That was then I learnt that the mind could stay in these stages for this period

dharana -- four matras (I assume they meant seconds or beats of thoughts, or electrical waves of the brain -- the yogic language can be rather confounding)

Dhyana -- eight matras

Samadhi - continuum

Only when you meditate regularly do you realise the mind's oscillation -- and wonder at how these yogis explained and understood the mind.


Free MySpace Animations! When the infatuation with yoga began, I read up madly about all related science material too. For me, the connections were immense. The other day one girl who wants to become yoga teacher said what I write on my white boards, she does find elsewhere. That is because I read one thing and connect to something else I've read, on yoga. It is possible that the scientists who wrote the book from where I draw the connection would squirm at the psychic link I chance upon.. but for me, everything in science is a powerful reiteration of what I find and experience in yoga.

So, yes, to return to the mind stuff I was talking of: I read in one of the neurological books that the mind's attention span on any object intensely is for four seconds only..

So, yes, the mind is created to oscillate and its movement gave it a greater expanse. But in yoga, the oscillation must stop! Or be controlled...

Those who don't do that, they are not doing yoga at all:(

Greenery and your memory

It seems that those who looked at greenery had better brains (memory, the research said) than those who did their daily walk around concrete. Poor Mumbaikars, I even see some of them chose these sad, garbage strewn lanes. It is a puzzle to me, when I see these morning walkers, why they are there in these crammed, dirty roads when there are so many parks around.. (I am on that dirty road, because it leads to my center:)

Time, yoga and coming back

Free MySpace Animations!

I am sorry for wandering off this blog space for so long.. But I have this relationship with time that I am trying to break. It -- Time - is actually the static I have most disturbing at the back of the head. In fact, my great rush to change the world (ha ha), write books, and do this or that, comes surely from a sense of time.

But for the last few weeks, I tried to drop that because I realised that the static was eating into my mindspace. Also, really, time in quantum science is the joker of the pack .. It is indefinable and does not need to be quantified. In fact, I find that time can be pretty expansive if you stepped back from it. You could relate to it, but must become dispassionate about it. This is tricky to explain, but those of you who do a lot in a little time will understand. Now to make this a quantum experience, you need to be not rushed by time, but just float along,  and suddenly time stops being a monster and lets you do all that you wanted to do, without seeming to swallow you up. That could be most satisfying thing you did, in your life. To look like you are lolling on a beachside, relaxed (and feeling it) while actually gadding about.

To do this, you have to draw into a lot of meditative reserve. Otherwise, it will be just some theory and not actual practice. And I find, somewhere, it is working. Hence, I can now come back and rush about, but still be relaxed. I am, as you can see, trying to release myself from my own grip. And I find that my grip has acquired different claws -- time, need to change stuff, teach, be good -- all very nice things to be aware off, but as you grow you have to jettison some things that were great props in another time, for another person, that you were.




Free MySpace Animations!

If a rocket does not jettison its booster rockets, it will sputter and drop back to the earth. Savvy:)??!!

Time is so much an ego thing, if you make the connection. If you dropped the sense of that, and still be aware of its tick-tock, somewhereb in the distane, something is jettisoned that should go...because its time is now up:)

So, I am dropping the idea of time -- to do that, I had to make believe, as I did, over the last few weeks.

Kukkutasana: cockerel pose

There are lots of stories in this pose. But I like the one why Lord Murugan chose the cockerel to be in his flag, after having cut a demon in half, and out of sympathy let one half of him become his favorite vahana/vehicle of peacock and the other the emblem in his flag, of cockerel. Since Kartikeya/ Lord Murugan who is also known as Skanda in other parts of India

He is a warlord and many of the asuras he destroyed could be symbolically seen as the many demons our egos become. lt
Surapadman is an asura whom most other warriors find difficult to kill, since he could take on many forms of creatures from nature (how our ego can be subtle that we may be fooled and how our ego may resist deletion:) In the end, Skanda kills him with the trishul (trident) gifted to him by his mother Shakti. The trishul, btw, signifies the enlightened souls ability to transcend the three gunas/qualities of tamas, rajas and even sattva.

Somewhere I read that the cockerel is the symbol of eternity. I will dig around a bit more, but just now, more on this pose.

It could be higher, tighter. The strong practitioners seem to lift it up to the elbows.

I remember trying it very early on, in my learning graph of yoga. However, I left the pose when doing sadhana intensive and I tried it and someone my hand position was wrong.  I don't know why that should have stopped me, but possibly, my ego (ha, ha:) But I went back to it, just last week, to see if I could get it right and this is what I managed.

What this pose needs:

• Obviously, a good lotus in the seated position.
• A strong crow, or other arm balancers which take the load on the wrists (sidecrow, for instance, as well as astavakrasana). 

You will find that to lift off actually you tilt your butt back, push your face head, round the shoulders a bit, and draw the stomach in. All must be done simultaneously. 

Ideally the calves and thighs should be higher up each arm, at least elbow level, though that lift needs a lot of strength, since you have to swing your hips high. Otherwise, even if lift up, you will get slowly dragged down, to the forearms, as seems to be happening with me:( 

Well, u know, the advantage of being a yoga teacher is that one can indulge in asana practice without feeling ti is an ego-booster, as it can be, for a lot of people:) Obviously I am not immune to it: why else upload this on fb:) 

Happy sadhana!

Kapilasana: forehead pose

This is the Forehead version of the headstand. It calls for resting on your forehead, rather than your crown. It is a tricky place to rest your headstand. I had earlier shown another  version of the kapilasana, which is the basic headstand, but resting on the forehead. In this, a little bit more complication, to make it more wobbly.

Though the book where I picked it up from says it is a forehead pose and nothing else, I believe it must be named after sage Kapila, who is a bhakti yogi, who describes the cosmic energy in a very interesting way. He is said to explain this to his mother, Devahuti, who attains mokhsha on hearing his description:) He says this energy can see with its feet..

I borrowed this from this site, an explanation from Swami Krishnananda on Kapila's discourse with his mother:

"In the case of an ordinary mortal, there is a distinction made between the functions of the head, heart, lungs, feet, hands and so on, but in the case of the Mighty Person, such distinction is not made. Any part is as good as any other part. We cannot say that His feet are inferior to His head, as no such comparison is possible in the case of God’s Personality. His limbs are described for the purpose of meditation. Every part is capable of doing the function of any other part. This is how we have it in the Bhagavadgita or in the Veda. Sarvataḥ pāni-pādam tat sarvato’kṣi-śiro-mukham, sarvataḥ śrutimal loke sarvam āvṛtya tiṣṭhati (13.13): Every part of His body are eyes and ears, every part is mouth, every part is feet, every part is hands. He can work with His feet, not merely with His hands; He can see with His toes and speak with His nose, because every function is an attribute of every part of God. It is not a limitation of concept as in our own personality where one organ cannot know the function of another organ. There, every organ is all organs because God is called All-in-all.

So Padadikeshantavarnana is the subject of this description for the purpose of meditation. "

--

I must I did not stay long enough in the Kapilapose to be able to experience this:( It puts a lot of scrunch on the neck itself and can be very demanding for a long hold.. but I believe it could ultimately help you reach the no-hands headstand/..

What this pose needs:

• A basic ability to take a fall in the headstand! No jokes, because to stay up on the forehead could be tricky. Even more, when you throw one leg back, as suggested, it can topple you back, since the whole back is now curved, almost towards a complete fall or release from the headstand. 
• Neck strength and flexibility.
• It creates quite a cramp at the back of the thighs, so that could be rather unexpected..

Ekapadabakadhyanasa:onehanded meditating crane pose

Ok, at the expense of sounding self-congratulatory I must say this is a pose I feel proud of:) It felt, when I first saw it in a book, a simply impossible-to-do pose. I tried it yesterday, falling down several times, and feeling that the book was making up the pose.. it was an illustration and so I felt that it was not possible to do this. I tried it again this morning, and got it. Which just shows how silly and self-limiting and judgemental the mind is and why it may not be taken too seriously. On a more humble note, I must confess that my left hand does not give a great lift .. which of course, is a problem, that may be sorted with practice.

I love the lessons a pose can teach. I always feel excited when entering a pose and I don't think much of what I think too seriously.

That sort of is falling in place more intensely now, especially since I am starting my meditation class this Saturday.
What this pose needs:
 To be frank I still don't know:)

• But a strong, a minute stay in the crow/crane pose/
• A strong shoulderpressing pose.
• Then some core strength. This may be really important, if you are muscled, the way I am, since then one is heavier and therefore need more strength. 
• What I felt when I went up and pushed higher into the pose was the extend the abdomen is involved in this pose. 

Progress in the pose:

I entered this with one leg held out. The ideal entry is to stretch the leg out from the crow. Working on it, working on it..

Happy sadhana!

Clenching fist, a new study on memory and yoga and all that

Free MySpace Animations!

A new study a research unit from Montclair university found that clenching fists can aid memory. In yoga, a clenched fist is a mudra that is called mushti mudra and has been used as a powerful hand gesture to heal the aggravations of all the three ayurvedic doshas of vata (anxiety), pitta (anger), kapha (lethargy/dullness). It is used to release pent up emotions and can be used to calm an hyperactive mind. The mudras, as the books of Bihar School of yoga, explain are based on the principle of the homunculus man (brain map of body parts'representation in the brain).

The study also found the same link as yoga on how the left hand connects to the right brain hemsiphere and vice versa. Left hand deals with sadness and anxiety. Right hand with happiness and anger.

And in the new study it was found the clenching the fist before picking up important facts could help remember, while clenching it while trying to retrieve it will also help it faster.
Also, clenching the right fist will help lock the facts in, while clenching the left will help retrieve it.

The thing course is that while typing this all out my hands are preoccupied and I cannot do a mudra, and my mind is already boggled about all that left-right stuff.. oh, and I am dyslexic, and it is yoga that makes me laugh at that, and still find my way about, with my body and my mind. Else, I would have been lost to myself, long ago:)

Daily health gyan: incense and aroma

I believe in the magic of aroma oils -- because plants are passive life forms they needed to protect themselves, and therefore created a complex system of chemicals that helped them survive, and even communicate. It is said that certain plants, when chopped or axed, release chemicals that serve as alert to other plants around...

The aroma subject is vast and needs expertise. But here is how u could use them, in a sort of formula:

• Floral fragrances are tonic and also calm anxiety states. 
• Herbal ones stimulate the mind, or are used for encouraging or preparing the mind for meditation. 

Interesting, I did not know this, till now. 

Unsupported headstand, interesting variation

This is the nirlamba sirsasana, on the back of the hands. I like this simply because it is tougher than the other unsupported variations and I believe could be secret preparation behind totally leaving your hands in the headstand. I tried it too, though, as usual, for just a fraction of a second.
What u need for this pose:

• A great unsupported headstand, with a light center. At the basic level, with elbows bent
• Then, the hands straight, palms down version, again with a great center. 
• Then this one. 

It is a very light pose and u should be prepared for several falls, usually to the side, when you start trying it, till subtle muscles in the shoulders learn to cope with this new, more demanding variation. Like all things that need to be light, it requires more intense focus and more strength. 

Only really strong things can be really light:) 

Vajroli mudra and its signficance

Vajroli mudra is gradually mastered, giving practitioner a high level of control over instinctive lie and enabling him to become established in a state of consciousness where the instinctive desires are recognized in their seed forms (vasanas) and their energy harnessed, liberated and utilized on a higher plane of experience”: Dr Swami Karmananda in his book Yogic Management of Common Diseases.

Night birds and waking up early

Free MySpace Animations!

I always was an owl, and though I knew technically the night was shorter than the day, if I had a deadline I piled it on for the night, often staying up entire nights to do my work. I have done that most of my life, including from the teens, and it worked for me as a journalist, staying up, nail-biting and tense as the time flew by and lumber around the next day, living on coffee and an empty stomach..

But all that changed with yoga. The interesting thing, if there is some work that needs to be done late nights, I can sit up as long as I want and yet wake up, crack of dawn.. I simply cannot seem to sleep on, as I used to do, while doing night shifts..

It has something to do with having yoga in my life, I feel.. this time extension..

Here is some more on this:

Dr Robert E. Svoboda in his book Prakriti,  “Awaking before sunrise permits the body to begin to synchronise itself to the rhythm of the sun. Also, vata (wind element) whose qualities of lightness and irregularity do not encourage good sound sleep, rules the last portion of the night. Since vata is also involved in elimination, the pre-dawn period is the best time to try to eliminate the body’s physical and mental wastes. Proper elimination also helps remove the kapha that naturally accumulates overnight.” 

Sour taste:daily health gyan

I was talking to my doctor about my knee. She feels that it could be just natural aging:) I have no issue with that attitude, but then, the thing is I know of so many youngsters, some in their teens who have an issue with their knees (including my own daughter). So, if we were to just let a problem hang because u think it is natural aging, it means you have given up from dealing with it. I somehow do not accept this explanation at all, since I feel better now, healthwise, than when I was a kid and I think it has a lot to do with yoga as an attitude and being, including eating the right foods. 

So, I was coursing through stuff in ayurveda on foods and this is what I found out: that sour and bitter tastes are good for healing of joint pains... some things on that, from an article I wrote a while ago: 

(Image of the sour tamarind from this link) 

Ayurveda:

In ayurveda, this taste is associated with earth and fire elements. In ayurveda this is said to be found in sour fruits, yoghurt, and fermented foods. Dr David Frawley believes this taste does not do much to the nervous system, but can be a mild stimulant (from his book Ayurveda an the Mind). It can help counter depression and dizziness. In this category he places herbal wines, lime, amlaki and tamarind.

Dr Robert Svoboda’s book Prakriti gives its impact on the body: Sour increases kapha elment (heavy, slow-moving personalities) and pitta (fiery, competitive personalities in ayurveda), and decreases vata (hyperactive, creative),. It is heating, heavy and unctuous. Sour refreshes the being, encourages elimination of wastes, encourages spasms and tremors to abate, and improves appetite and digestion.

The wrong type of focus or ekagraha:yogic thought

I was trying to jot down some points on eka graha and found this interesting tidbit which confirms what I have suspected for long, that some aspects of yoga when done without awareness can actually make you quite a monster (see how many of the top gurus fall, sticky clay at their feet),

Ekagraha can actually make you very arrogant ("I have reached" or "I have control" sense of overweening pride). I see that in students too, who grow in a weird way, backwards.  The more asanas they learn the more arrogant they get.. instead of using the poses to break a dominant pattern, they use them to reinforce them. It disturbs me, to see yoga used in this fashion and also, I am afraid, promoted in this fashion, including by established institutes.

Here is what Patanjali himself warns, about the wrong type of focus..

Rishi Patanjali describes the dangers of wrong type of concentration, which lacks the purity of a spiritual temper: " When such concentration is not accompanied by non-attachment, ignorance remains. The aspirant will reach the state of discarnate gods or become merged in the forces of nature."

Free MySpace Animations!

Why should one practice regularly? A small story

Once the 19^th century saint Vijaykrishna Goswami was asked how the mind may be taught one-pointedness. He gave this metaphysical analogy on how it may be achieved. There is a forest in which many wild animals live.  They are not visible, since they are sly, cunning and dangerous. They lurk about to attack when least expected. However, when a fire is set to the trees, the animals rush out. So too it is with our mind. The fire of sadhana (regular practice) can release the hidden animals of our thought-patterns (or samskaras). Then the space becomes forever free of them. It becomes citta bhumi (the plane of pure consciousness)
. 
MySpace Codes!

Rosemary oil: daily health gyan

I myself am very uncomfortable with rosemary oil..maybe because I need it:) It hikes blood pressure.. my blood pressure veers towards the low, due to my childhood illnesses and deprivations, I guess:( Rosemary is also said to support memory. It is used for skin problems. But has lots of contraindications and is best used only after consulting a real aroma expert. I remember writing a health tip saying that a drop or two on the hairbrush on wet hair can control dryness and frizziness.

Why bother to look or call oneself the seeker?

Free MySpace Animations!

The latest halo we all -- those of us in this yoga world and who like spiritual stuff -- is the label of the seeker:) It is a pretty highfalutin one, and I must confess to using it (humbly though) with as much frequency as its pompous users.

But really, in  serious jnana yoga space (where I believe Zen, Taoism, Koans exist) if you are seeker, you are already lost. In these stratosphere of spiritualism, you do not seek because you are already There. Often the Mulla Nasruddin story would be recited (and all moral stories across the world have some version of it, like in Jataka tales too, for sure) where the Mulla sees five people squabbling about how big their group is, and as each one counts the group, he leaves himself out and always adds up to the wrong number, of four!
Seekers seek because they have not found it. Here, Zen, says, u do not need to seek:

It is eternity now
I am in
the midst of it.
it is about me
in the sunshine
I am in it
as the butterfly
in the light-laden air
Nothing has to come. 
It is now. 

Richard Jefferies

Spring catarrh: daily health gyan

Spring catarrh is not the same thing as conjunctivitis. I had a bout last week, because of my contact lens (shot the due date for discarding it, my analysis .. but my doctor feels it is the pollen from flowers (maybe since I hang out below in the garden in my old building, with my kitten, almost daily, rubbing my face into shrubs and being bitten by mosquitoes.. It could be even the pigeon shit that blows into my face every time I switch on the ac at Yoga kuteer .. I removed all the wasted pots and plants at the sill and cleared the muck, the last two days.

Spring catarrh interestingly is an autoimmune thing, is non-infectious,  where the body's defense system attacks itself when provoked by an otherwise harmless particle (other ailments, to which I have been prone and have controlled with yoga include bronchitis, joint pain -- ha ha vata dosha, and everything else in between:( like a pollen, such stuff which does not bother the rest of humanity. I must be passing through some vulnerable phase. I used to suffer that in childhood, deprived, troubled et al...and happens when I am feeling hypersensitive about stuff.. hey, must get back to practising antar mouna..

Spring catarrh bothers the eye quite a bit.. awkward. usually happens with children (I must be regressing:)
Interestingly, it settled in a day, and I continued with my practice, with just a day's gap, taken more for my periods, then for this issue..

Eye drops, regular washes of the eyes, cold compresses -- and just chillaxing -- the last bit, usually does the trick!

Rope burns and knee collapse: why I do what I do?!

Went back to rope after two years gap -- a gap which I was compelled to take just when I was doing so well, due to the knee accident:( Any case, my whole body is aching like I have a high fever, my leg has black and blue bruises all over from the rope cutting into it, and my feet have rope burn marks that look ugly and make me look like an unkempt unstylish woman (I gave up, long ago)

 Still, I love it, just as much. My knee seemed to descend into more trouble after I started it, because I tried what is called Hanuman pakkad (monkey god hold) and hung by the ankle. The right leg was fine, but the left knee (ahem) felt odd..

This one above is the simple jump. I have been struggling with this for years and this is the A of rope yoga. Usually Sir will put me into it, and then you sort of grin through the intense pain of the rope burning into your flesh and toes and anywhere else and do the yoga poses and hang on for dear life. But this time, I was there with J, on my own, and tried it and even managed the simple jump I tried it several times and each time, I managed it, however inelegantly the entry into the pose was. That is because my left leg would not remain straight -- the knee is so full of fear that sometimes I wonder if it triggers pain on its own..

Any way, a good moment:)

So, why do I do what I do? The other day, an acquaintance  looked at me askance, and asked me very pointed questions?

• You are free the whole day, after just three hours of teaching (Some of us make hard choices financially, and make it work. Why it burns others, is a wonder to me?)
• You practice for so long daily? (She actually wants to tell me: I hate u for enjoying what you do in life. I hate you for loving fitness) 
• Your own practice, she asks again, raising her eyebrows, soo long? (I mean, what is a yoga teacher without a daily practice.. why it bothers and agitates people what I do-- would they rather I gossip, bitch or talk, like them?!!) 
• So u do not do anything the whole day, apart from your classes? Arrgh, she won't let go.. (This really bothers people who do all sorts of funny things, like poke their noses into other people's lives and I hate having to explain that I am so busy that I don't get time to do even  my nails -- that is true -- I am writing columns, I have done three books and have two in the pipeline, just at the tip off this keyboard and I spend quality time with my kitten, I take it out for walks, groom it, and then I practice, phew, that last one really gets them:) 

I do what I do because I rather spend time away from people -- I am involuting because I am a hermit in a cityscape, a misfit. 

I do it because I prefer my company over others, to tell u the truth:) 

The worst part of a bad headstand

A good headstand is a very light one. It is soft. I have an expat student who keeps asking which muscle to tighten extra before going up. I find these questions have already interfered with her growth. If there is a muscle to tighten I will suggest it, na? When you start on a pose, unless there is any specific reason to tighten something, you cannot even imagine you should do that, simply because in a disorienting pose like that contracting muscles will simply throw you off the center.

A good headstand is like a huge tree moving softly with every whiff of breath. It is soft. It is not fixed by tightening muscles but flowing with an awareness that ensures which muscle must tighten when and where as required.  It is a flowing firm-release practice.This is what makes a good headstand deeply relaxing. In a good headstand, you are constantly releasing the pressure at the neck by lifting from the elbows and elongating your shoulderblades. At this point the body can move back to the center if it has lost it. Most people who hold a stiff headstand fear this movement and hence resist entering that zone altogether thus losing the most beautiful and sophisticated joy of holding a headstand well.

The mistakes that beginners make, and is permissible, but unacceptable in advanced students involve:

Collapsing at the neck.

• . this will cause the wrong muscles to develop, creating a thick neck and most likely a double chin. 
• This collapse at the neck will also hike the blood pressure because it presses into the cardiac plexus which manages your blood flow. 
• It will spike the heart beat. 
• It will constrict the breath, making it effort-full.

Curving at the spine: 

It could be at the neck, as most beginners tend to do this.  Or mid-back as advanced students do when they want to increase the duration in the pose without initiating the corrections or softness or firmness required. Often this is the mistake you will find in advanced students greedy for upping their hold in the final pose. Or at the lower back, which happens usually when the student is unaware a curve is being created and pushes the hips back, again due to a lack of awareness. Interesting the hips move back only because the student wishes to keep the legs in front, to be able to avert a backward fall.  

• All of this will create a postural defect with its corresponding problem at the emotional level: the neck collapse will increase anxiety or anger/ the mid-back collapse will push the ego out more in the open/ the lower back collapse will deter your stamina under stress. 
• Plus, it is going to give you permanent paunchy look, because you have wrongly trained and pushed the spine into protruding out. Nothing you do with abs exercise will rectify this. 

The worst side effect of a bad headstand is that because the breath is strained, it will trigger the sympathetic nervous system, thus triggering stress hormones and an inflammatory response in the body as it tries to deal with this. What it means is that you are going to be stiffer than before, because that is how the sympathetic nervous system wrecks your body, by increasing the acid levels in your blood. 

Why I do not like to compromise on pranayama, in a class

I get subtle suggestions from several students, who will say they do not like pranayama, they get bored, can they please try different ones, that they rather do asana.. This subtle attempt to manipulate me continues. Even as a teacher, when you stand in front of a class where certain students resist/resent pranayama, you need to go deep into yourself to be able to do a high energy pranayama session. This is a big challenge, which, I must say a lot of yoga teachers in Mumbai do not seem to take on. They are afraid of losing students and therefore capitulate.

I stick to pranayama because I believe it is premeditative, that it tones the ego down, plus it controls the reflexive knee jerk reactions people bring to tough poses (like headstand and the crow) and that the marriage of the left-right brain is very crucial for reaching the real depth in a pose. I believe more, that the nadis get progressively purified, that you will be disease free for longer,  and that your skin glows with regular pranayama. So, I do not need much convincing. I have also realised that you cannot convince students who believe otherwise that pranayama is indeed good. But if you stick to your decision to include pranayama in every class then, yes, that may be how tough you are as a teacher. It may be required to be that way, for the sake of integrity.

Here is some more, from an article I once wrote ..

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, referred to even today as the last word on yogic practices and their psycho-somatic and spiritual impacts, also says: "The vayu (wind or air) should be skillfully inhaled, exhaled and retained in order to attain siddhi or perfection."  Again, the emphatic assurance towards longevity and perfect health through breath control: "When one is able to hold the vayu according to one's will, the digestive power increases. With the nadis (energy channels in the body) purified, the inner sound or nada awakens and one is free from disease."

             

In yoga, disease is seen as a hurdle in the spiritual path. Hence, the ancient Yoga Chudamani Upanishad (authorship unknown) assures us that "pranayama becomes fire for the fuel of sin, and has always been regarded by yogis as a great bridge for crossing the ocean of the world." Even Ramana Maharishi, that celebrated sage of Arunchalam, who did not approve of an obsessive yogapractice encouraged breath control as the ideal way to tame a reluctant mind and coax it towards higher spiritual goals. He says: "The source of the breath is the same as that of the mind. Therefore the subsistence of either leads to the other. The practice of stilling the mind through breath control is called yoga." 

Lotus pose and another one

Answer to yesterday's query: it is the purity. Because it rises from muddy waters but retains its beauty and purity without being touched by where it came from. Here, we may interpret it to mean that we have patterns that crowd us, from our own childhood (or past lives), we must strain to leave all those behind, to reach upwards, to the sun.

Query: Which chakra is activated in the standing forward bend, also the extreme stretch Uttanasana? 

The sense of oneness: in a pose: relaxed comfort that Patanjali spoke of

When I start learning a pose, I struggle with it, initially. That is what actually helps me break it up, so I can teach it to my students. The next stage I try to reach with that pose is a comfort level. The backbends still are
tricky, maybe I don't have much self-love:)
But I try that, to work a sense of ease. The reason I do any of the other activity I do, including singing is for this reason -- and a sense of oneness with some aspect of the sense so it reaches out, completely. This can be quite an eye-opener, that our mind is not really trained to take in much and unless u push it ahead, it will not learn to do that. Then, something settles in. I realise that with people too, that they connect when, at one glance, you can take them in, for what they are. And that seems to either get their hackles up or let their guard down. It is interesting, this way of looking at the world, as completely, yet unaffectedly, as possible.

I like that sense in a pose. Lately, I was trying to increase my time in the basic headstand and realised that a comfort zone is very difficult to leave.. that too is exciting, na? But to feel one with a pose, that is so relaxing where I see a lot of people struggling and straining.

The idea of this is difficult to get through, but here Li Po, very poetically puts this thru


The birds have vanished down the sky 
Now the last cloud drains away 
We sit together 
the mountain and I, 
until only the mountain remains. 

Yogic tip: peacock pose

Mayurasana is contraindicated in very high blood pressure, heart problems, uterus prolapse, and enlarged live.